BEGOTTEN OF GOD

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." -- I Peter 1:3

     Peter, the fisherman of Galilee, had great reason to be thankful. If the forgiveness of small debts should cause gratitude, surely he who with an oath declared he did not know Jesus, if forgiven, should be doubly grateful. Oh, that look of melting tenderness that Jesus gave Peter! The already crushed and sorrowful heart of the erring disciple was so completely broken that he went out and wept bitterly. With God there is forgiveness. To err -- to sin -- is human, to forgive is divine. Then, sorrowing one, look unto Jesus and be saved.

     A clean heart is a thankful heart. It is impossible for one who has been cleansed to truly view the mysteries of redemption without being astonished at the wonders and graces which are hidden there. Paul cried in ecstasy, "Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!

     Having given us a glimpse of the possibilities of grace, and the method of their attainment, Peter breaks out with the exclamation, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." Why should he bless God? Why should I bless God? He leads my soul into deep waters, He hides His face when it seems to me that I need Him most. Then why should I adore Him? All such reasonings are carnal. I will never be fully blest until I can look through the clouds and darkness and tempest and see the hand of God working for me with more tender care, with greater ability, and with deeper anxiety for my success than I, myself, could manifest had I the power to run things my own way. We think we must be always in the light; we are not happy unless our emotions are stirred; we are as covetous after and as attached to the breasts of divine consolation as an unweaned child; without it we become fretful and peevish, and are inclined to blame God for withholding our rightful bounty. God wants us to be men in wisdom and look more to the Giver of consolation than to the consolation He gives. If we possess the Giver we have the gift, but in spiritual matters the gift will breed worms like the manna in the wilderness if we lose the Giver. A'Kempis says, "If it be Thy will that I should be in darkness, be Thou blessed; and if it be Thy will that I should be in light, be Thou again blessed. If Thou vouchsafe to comfort me, be Thou blessed; and if Thou wilt have me afflicted, be Thou blessed also."

     I do not desire to argue the question of the eternal sonship of Christ, enough for me that the Father calls Him His beloved Son. As the heavens are higher than the earth that far do the wisdom and ways of God excel the wisdom and ways of man. God spake light into existence, but I know not how; God made the world from naught, but I know not how; God, by His almighty power, keeps the universe running in perfect harmony, such power is too wonderful for me; God made bare His right arm and brought salvation to a sin-wrecked world, from chaos He brought forth order, from uncleanness purity; I stand in awe before this miracle of eternity and cannot comprehend. If I must confess my dullness of vision concerning these matters, I must also concerning that other great mystery, the incarnation of Christ and His eternal sonship. I bow before Him, confess my lack of comprehension, believe and worship

     "Who according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again." God, the Father, is the great source of spiritual good. We are too much inclined to look on Him as angry with us and so revengeful because of our sins that He will not be approached; and to think of Jesus as the personification of mercy coming to turn aside the Almighty's thunderbolts that we should not die. Such a view makes the Father a being of terrors, it robs Him of His great attribute of love and clothes Him with vengeance. John says that God (the Father) so loved the world that He gave His Son for our redemption. This salvation is a conception of the Father of lights the Giver of every good and perfect gift. He manifested His love by giving the greatest gift eternity possessed, He wounded His own Father-heart that He might heal us eternally. There was only one way to save the lost, and God's love found that way. He sacrificed His Son because He must be sacrificed or we must die eternally.

     Mercy is an attribute of God which is brought into existence because there are beings who are needy. Until weakness was manifested in the fall of beings which might be helped, mercy did not exist. We do not know where mercy was born, but we do know it was manifested in that our first hour of need, when God said, "The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head." To Moses, God proclaimed Himself merciful and gracious, slow to anger and plenteous in mercy. Oh, how needy we are! Born in sin and shapen in iniquity, going astray as soon as we are born, not only aliens by birth, but sinners by choice, for God declares that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Sin like a millstone would drag us to hell, but the mercy of God, manifested in the person of Jesus Christ, came to our rescue.

     Mercy found us in the "slough of despond," and, lifting us up, set our feet on the Rock.

     "Plunged in a gulf of deep despair,

     We wretched sinners lay,

     Without one cheering beam of hope,

     Or spark of glimmering day.

"With pitying eye the Prince of Peace

     Beheld our helpless grief,

     He saw, and, oh, amazing love;

     He flew to our relief.

"Down from the shining seats above,

     With joyful haste He fled;

     Entered the grave In mortal flesh,

     And dwelt among the dead."

     Men give grudgingly either from a spirit of stinginess or because of a lack of means, but God, out of a storehouse of unlimited possibilities, gives abundantly. The measure of His giving is not circumscribed by a lack of willingness or by a lack of wealth. The cattle on a thousand hills belong to Him, the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the sea and they that dwell therein; every star in the universe, from the nearest to the most remote, claims God as its owner; angels, archangels, cherubim and seraphim delight to do Him honor; heaven is His, He paves its streets with celestial gold, builds its walls with jasper, its gates with pearls, and its palaces are studded with gems more costly and beautiful than anything of earth. If we need help, help has been laid on one that is mighty; if we need wisdom, He gives to all men liberally; if we need temporal blessings, He has promised to supply all our needs according to His riches in glory; if we need grace, He will make all grace abound toward us. Then why should we want? The young lions do lack and suffer hunger, but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing. "My mouth shall show forth Thy righteousness and Thy salvation all the day."

     Of "His abundant mercy He hath begotten us again." We were dead in trespasses and in sins, we were children of the devil, but by His divine power, and through His marvelous mercy, He has resurrected us from the dead and made us children of God. Without this spiritual resurrection we can never see God in peace. Were you ever thankful for the possibility of seeing God? Man is fearfully and wonderfully made. Although so fallen and so defiled he still has powers possessed by no other earthly being. The spirit of the beast goes downward into the earth, but the spirit of man, created to live forever, may drop this mortal clay and mount to heaven's highest glories.

     About six or seven hundred years ago there was a great church congress in the city of Kostinitz. One day two of the bishops who were riding in the country saw in the distance a shepherd weeping. Approaching him they asked the cause of his distress. The man pointed to an ugly toad in the grass, and said, "When I saw that toad I felt so grateful that God had made me a man instead of such an animal, and I remembered that I had never thanked Him for it, and I weep on account of my ingratitude." How strange that I, an immortal spirit, created for the enjoyments and felicities of heaven, should be satisfied with earthly good!

     Notice, again, that this new birth is a personal matter, and that Peter speaks of it as having been actually received. "God has begotten us again." Some are inclined to place all the blessings beyond the river, others would leave them all with the apostles, but God has blessings for each individual if he will but put himself in the proper attitude to receive them.

     "Hath begotten us again unto a lively hope." According to the word of God, John the Baptist lived for no other purpose than to be the forerunner of Jesus; when this end was accomplished he died. God told Jeremiah that before he was born He had sanctified him and ordained him a prophet unto the nations. Cyrus the Great, the conqueror of Babylon, although history reveals the fact that he was a cruel and bloodthirsty tyrant, was appointed by God to fulfill His purposes. One hundred seventy-six years before the prophecy was fulfilled, God, through the prophet Isaiah, called him by name and said, "Cyrus is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure: even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, Thy foundations shall be laid."

     The apostle gives us to understand that when we are begotten again this birth is for a purpose. We are not saved to waste our powers in idle dreaming, we are not saved for the sole purpose of drinking in, even here, the pleasures of the Lord; we are not saved that we may spend our time ecstatically gazing into the heavens; and, again, we are not saved that we may simply escape hell and gain a home in heaven; but, on the contrary, we are saved not only for our own benefit, but that we may also be a blessing to others. God desires that we shall live so holy and justly and unblamably in this present evil world that others may see our good works and glorify our Father which is in heaven. Faber says:

     "Oh, that I could waste my life for others,

     With no ends of my own;

     Oh, that I could pour myself into my brothers,

     And live for them alone."

     The apostle declares that we are begotten again "unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." Hope is that grace which bears up the soul, giving it buoyancy and gladness amid the sorrows and disappointments incident to this life. Without hope men must fall into utter despair. Hope can change a field of defeat into a field of opportunity.